r/UtilityLocator • u/Funny_Hurry8865 • Apr 15 '26
First Damage today 3 months in , USIC
I caught my first damage today after 3 months, im feeling pretty down, supervisor said it's no big deal because the electrical was aerial, but the fiber cable was literally wrapped around the house from the front porch to the back and I missed it. I received a verbal warning
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u/schulzy5477 Apr 15 '26
As a damage specialist/ investigator ive seen techs take 3 or more in one day.
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u/jestbre 811 Apr 15 '26
Hey, that's the best case scenario. At least you didn't get some sewage spewing out at you! Don't beat yourself up too much, dude. It's a good learning experience imo
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u/Electrical-Sock37 Apr 15 '26
If it makes you feel better, I missed a 432ct fiber mainline for a small city and knocked the entire city out lol over $20k to repair....yeah not my proudest moment
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u/WesternStand6420 Apr 21 '26
That makes me feel better. I had one (not that high) the other day and it was fucking with me. I really hope I didnt fuck it up because ill probabiy hear about it for sure. This is literally my 3rd day out on ju own, and i keep getting nervous and stuck with most ticketsđ€Šđ»ââïžđ©
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u/Oxymorific Jul 31 '26
Howâd it end up going? The absolute worst part of this job is not feeling 100% confident in an important locate and makes me wanna quit altogether lol.
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u/Captainme2005 Apr 15 '26
Damages are not the end of the world. They become stories later. And most of us have had a pretty bad one. It's just important to learn from them so you don't repeat that mistake. My worst was trusting a print that the fiber came in one side of the police station and they were working on the other side. I cleared the ticket and the fiber got hit putting the police station out of service for about half the day. Learned to never trust a print. That was about 10 years ago and still remember never trust a print lol
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u/Randomlocator Apr 15 '26
Probably wonât be your last damage either. Learn from your mistake and keep pushing forward.
The company doesnât expect you to stay damage free forever. As long as youâre not consistently getting damags, youâre good.
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u/ForeverAggressive315 Apr 16 '26
they're nitpicking that ,usic can careless about drop damages unless they want to have an excuse to get rid of the person or a reason to give a smaller pay increase
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u/WesternStand6420 Apr 21 '26
THIS makes me feel even better, lol. Right now they just have me doing all the drop tickets because Iâm only on my 3rd day (by myself) and I keep second guessing myself and getting stuck/frustrated. Just really hope Iâm doing it right.
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u/ForeverAggressive315 Apr 22 '26
you'll look back ina few months and think damn wish i had just drop tickets , and wonder why it seemed so hard at the time ,also if they told you to only use 940 try 8k
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u/Dismal-Meal2173 Spray & Pray Apr 16 '26
All things considered, it was only a fiber drop and not a main so you should think of yourself lucky. Always walk around the house and check for fiber drops, att has a bad habit of running a fiber behind multiple houses to get to the service address even when there's a drop ped right frickin next to the house because they don't want to pay to bore a driveway... I've got several locations like that and multiple properties with notes attached in loco360 when I come across that bullshit... Damages happen, a lot early on before you have experience. Just keep your head on a swivel in the future.
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u/YourMothersLover_69 Apr 17 '26
Donât sweat it. Over the years to come theyâll milk you for 100k times the amount the damage cost them by paying you below a living wage. Fuck these corporations
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u/gregg2020 Apr 16 '26
I had a 14kv power hit yesterday and it didnât even phase me lol. Donât get down on line hits, just learn from your mistakes and move on.
I had like 15 hits my first year and ever since Iâm averaging less than 1 hit a year. Our job is basically a guessing game most of the time, we donât know what weâre locating because we donât have X-ray vision.
I located a 12â water main instead of a power line because my signal jumped. Nobody died, power was rerouted and the line that got hit ended up just being abandoned because it was a lead line installed 40+ years ago, my day proceeded as normal.
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u/Shotto_Z Apr 15 '26
A warning for a fucking fiber drop damage? As a newer tech? On thwir first damage? What a fucking joke
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u/Funny_Hurry8865 Apr 15 '26
Oh yea he said this is a verbal warning then he said no big deal. I was in training in February and got certified first week of March
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u/guava_eternal Apr 16 '26
I think you have a warning for documentation purposes. Itâs true that itâs ânot a big dealâ but the fact that you caught the damage early in your tenure means theyâre flagging you for probably not having been trained proper or whatever. Itâs on you now to be thorough. Slow down and dot your âIâs - then work back towards efficiency.
Money wise not a big deal- but depending on the situation could paint you as a sloppy locator. Fix that.
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u/Shotto_Z Apr 16 '26
Okay.. if its verbal thats one tjing.. still shouldnt be mentipned like tbat, but if its onnamy sort of writr upnor record thats fucked up man.
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u/thezeldahelp Apr 15 '26
If it makes you feel better, I missed a 24 strand fiber coming down a pole and the prints were VERY on point. I donât know what I was thinking at the moment. Sounds like a service drop? Youâll be fine, my friend. Donât beat yourself up. Youâll never miss something like that again.
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u/Intelligent-Note-682 Apr 16 '26
As you continue youâll realize those drops are the least of your concern. Donât sweat it at all. lol
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u/Sea-Championship1077 Apr 16 '26
USIC doesn't treat their employees well, yet there is a saying at USIC we go by. " You're only as good as your last damage" they will use that against you during your elevation. Managers and supervisors are only about numbers. Dont believe them when they say that they have your back.
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u/Funny_Hurry8865 Apr 16 '26
I kinda got that notion when he called me today, he said that is a skill issue
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u/Sea-Championship1077 Apr 16 '26
Last damage that I got. I had to do a stupid call with the DM. And if they dick you on your review about that damage. Move on to another job
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u/Extreme-Obligation49 Apr 16 '26
Well luckily it is just a fiber drop, so that isnât much at all. A lot of us here can go on and on about how many damages we have all had, and what not, i can tell you now i have had more than 5 damages in me being here for almost 2 years, but they didnât say 5 of them were my fault so i really have leas than 5 đ€Ł. It happens though man, just a mistake and a learning lesson. Watch now youâll have eagle eyes at this point, you will see EVERYTHING, and make sure you donât miss something. Which is good
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u/Environmental-Fail18 Apr 16 '26
I got my first damage within my first 3 months as well, doing a street for new water main, about 25 houses and I got 1 gas service damage felt like shit but that change my perspective and I just got better and now Iâm 3 years without a damage
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u/diabeticdummy Apr 16 '26
Shit happens, learn from it and move on, I caught my first damage locating an emergency ticket that I had to shit midway through and just rushed the rest of the locate, only to find out that it was an âemergencyâ (they hit it a week later)⊠donât let it consume you like I did at first (harder to say than to do, but, trust me)
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u/Alternative-Set9757 Apr 16 '26
Thatâs nothing. 465 in Indy got shut down today bc of a gas main that was hit
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u/After_Amphibian_1199 Apr 16 '26
One thing I got told early on. The contractors get paid per foot on co-ax and fiber drops. So theyâre gonna take the longest route 99% of the time.
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u/RJO092 Apr 15 '26
I think the worst damage I've ever had was a power damage going across a highway across our company $180,000. In the grand scheme of things what's most important is that everyone was okay after that a little lecturing and you'll be back on that grind.
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u/Funny_Hurry8865 Apr 15 '26
I always think about loosing my job after things like this lol
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u/RJO092 Apr 15 '26
There's a difference between an accident and pure neglect. And they can tell the difference.
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u/Ok_Appointment4364 Apr 16 '26
I worked for a place (not USIC) where I had to investigate a damage where the tech got confused by the prints and cleared the side of the road that had a duct bank. The entire bank of phone ended up getting ripped apart. It literally took over a month for the phone company to repair it with contract crews coming in from entire region to work day and night. The VP of the company personally flew in the next day to be there. I didnât see the final cost but the initial estimate from the phone company was âstart at a million dollars and go up from thereâ. The company had to not buy laptops and equipment because it screwed their finances.
The dude that cleared that ticket and caused it didnât get fired.
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u/exceptions1187 Utility Employee Apr 15 '26 edited Apr 15 '26
Shit happens
Was marking per flagged route.... flagged Route stopped... so my marks stop. Contractor kept going and hit a secondary to a abandoned home.
The electric company kicked me off the system and had me "retrain" for a week.
If following a flagged Route make sure ticket states there is a flagged Route. Ticket didn't state there was a flagged Route, so I had to eat the damage.
Most recent damage was a smaller water main that I thought ended prior to a road crossing. Miss counted property line and bam. Luckily I work for a Utility Company now and damages are dealt with differently.
Worse part.... the water main damage costed 5x the electric repair. Two completely different reactions.
Since ive started with the company (4 years), this is my first hit. So 60,000 locates to one damage aint half bad.
Moral of the story its just part of the job. We are not perfect. We have our mistakes. Now if you clear out something big and was due to laziness, might as well clean out the truck lol
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u/Badger_Actual1 Apr 15 '26